Escape Plymouth: Beanstalk (Plymouth)

Not quite a fairytale

Beanstalk needs you! The fantasy realm has been breached. Residents of fairytale land have had their precious golden eggs stolen & you must return them! Are you ready?

Leave no stone unturned, no gargoyle left unquestioned. This quest must be completed in 60 minutes or less. Please hurry heroes, you are our only hope in uniting the two worlds once again.

We noticed that Escapism Plymouth had opened a new game so we decided to do a little day trip down there to check it out. Unfortunately our options for other games were limited so we had to branch out and look at other venues. Generally we don’t often play at the ‘Escape’ chain due to a bad experience, but we decided to break that habit and book in one game at Escape Plymouth.

The game we chose was Beanstalk, I’m not sure why but it sounded like it was perhaps a little newer and different to their other offerings. When we arrived at the venue it certainly had a lot going on, with a full bar, pool table, and axe throwing – this was a loud space to be in.

We were directed to the bar/reception when we arrived and this is where we were checked in for our game and told to then take a seat in the waiting area. With toilets on site and the bar and waiting area it wasn’t the most uncomfortable place to wait – well except for the constant thudding from the axe throwing that is!

After a little while our GM appeared (didn’t catch a name) and then led us down the corridor to the entrance to Beanstalk. This is one of those games that actually start before you enter the room, which felt odd considering the entrance for the toilet for a facility was just further along the hallway. Our GM gave us the briefings while we were in the ‘garden’ area of the game, and then once that was done she left us so our time could start and we could solve the first puzzle of getting into the room!

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I don’t know what I was expecting but from the name ‘Beanstalk’ and the theming we witnessed outside the room I think I was expecting something fairytale-like and perhaps magical – that was not what we encountered. I thought perhaps that would at least be a beanstalk or something whimsical to get between the floors, but no, it was just a very industrial looking staircase.

The goal of this game is to collect eggs; some are easy, some are harder. Some are needed in order to complete the mission and get out, while some are bonus eggs. 21 eggs in total for you to find/release. This is probably where we found the most issue with this game, you can get clues for the main eggs, but not for the bonus eggs – of course you don’t actually know which are bonus eggs and which ones aren’t, and a tleast one of two of the main eggs seem to be done in a way that if you do get stuck there is literally nothing the GM can do to help. We had completed the main mission and had all but three of the bonus eggs with over 15 minutes remaining, but as the puzzles made no sense, and we could get no help, we literally just quit.

I love it when a game plays music or ambient noise as it helps us feel immersed, and Beanstalk did play music at all times. The only issue with this is that it was REALLY loud in some places and both made it hard to communicate and at times even think – ibuprofen at the ready!

As I mentioned earlier, this is a split-level game, so if you want to play it you will need to be comfortable going up a staircase and perhaps one or two steps in addition to that. We couldn’t see a work around and there was certainly no way to access a lift.

PUZZLES

We could probably assume that as there were 21 eggs to be found, there were 21 puzzles to be solved. I can’t say for sure if that is true but it probably wouldn’t be far off, although some of these puzzles were as simple as looking in the right place. I’ve already said my piece about the bonus puzzles so I won’t dwell on that. But fundamentally this game felt flawed in the approach they took and some puzzles took some massive leaps. With a few little tweaks it could likely be better, maybe.

The puzzles were the usual sort of escape room fare and for the most part were fair and decent (but not all); searching, observation, logic, wordplay, and physical manipulation made up most of the puzzles.

I don’t know how old this game was but at least two of the puzzles were broken and didn’t work like they should. One puzzle we managed to completely bypass because of how broken it was! That’s not really a bad thing though because this was a type of puzzle that I really don’t think belongs in an escape room – to be honest, there were a few puzzles that didn’t belong.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

The GM system is often where I feel that these chains/franchises are let down, and that was the case here. We were never given the name of our GM at the start, then at the end we had a completely different GM appear to congratulate us and take our picture. After the game we also asked our new GM to explain the three bonus puzzles we didn’t get, and we asked for her to show us how they were supposed to be solved, but she said she couldn’t go in the room so couldn’t show us?! Instead she tried to tell us from memory how these puzzles were solved, one was totally random and made no sense at all, another was clearly broken, and the third we were put off by stickers that “Oh they were just there, they didn’t mean anything”. Hmmph.

Clues in Beanstalk came across the screens in the room, one upstairs and one downstairs and we were notified by an audible chime – but don’t forget, you don’t get clues for bonus puzzles, not that you know which ones are bonus puzzles…

ANYTHING ELSE

There aren’t many games we have quit on while still having time to solve remaining puzzles, but this is one of them. It left a very sour taste in our mouths and unfortunately, I think reminded us why we don’t usually visit the ‘Escape’ venues. This game promised a lovely fairytale-like word, instead it was like we were in an odd home/office.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – around 58 mins

Address: Timbervault 12, Derrys Cross, Plymouth PL1 2TE

Website: https://www.escape-plymouth.co.uk/